Speaking about Spirituality and Christian Living

The author of 1 Peter reminds us that we are "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation." But what does it mean to say that by baptism we all participate in the priesthood of Christ? This address will explore a baptismal spirituality that sends us into mission in the world as a priestly people.

Contemporary theology has paid considerable attention to many features of our modern culture-technology, consumerism, Hollywood, television, the internet--yet surprisingly little reflection has been directed toward sports. When we Christians do consider sports our tendency is to criticize its excesses: an unhealthy sense of competition, the violence, too much emphasis on money, etc. But is there a genuine theology and spirituality of sports also worthy of our consideration? Is there something inherently religious about both playing sports and being a sports fan? This presentation explores questions such as these.

As Catholics, our belief in the incarnation should lead us to look for God not primarily in the dramatic and miraculous, but in the ordinary and even mundane elements of our life. This presentation sketches out a spirituality of daily living.

Many social scientists of the early and mid-twentieth century proposed a "secularization thesis" in which they predicted that with the rise of modernity religion would see an inexorable decline in public influence. Here in the United States, however, this has hardly been the case. The United States remains in profound ways a deeply religious society. What we have seen is less the processes of secularization than the increasing commodification of religion. That is, religion is often transformed into a sanitized and easily consumed "product" rather than a bracing way of life that calls us and the world to conversion. In this talk I will explore the ways in which Christianity has succumbed to the forces of commodification. I will then consider ways in which this trend might be countered by drawing on insights from our tradition.

For Catholics of a certain generation, "eschatology" was about the four last things: death, judgment, heaven and hell. In this presentation I offer a more helpful theological perspective on eschatology that is grounded in the virtue of Christian hope as a framework for reflecting on our final destiny.

This talk would attend to the cultural forces (e.g., consumerism, an obsession with romance, changing conceptions of households) that make keeping marital commitments more difficult today. I would then propose a spirituality that draws on resources from our Christian tradition and which is capable of responding to these cultural forces.